BOSTON –​​ On Saturday afternoon, Patrick McKenna, a 24-year-old Boston native, was walking around a near-empty Fenway Park as the Red Sox took some early batting practice. He saw Boston’s new ace Chris Sale walking in from right field and made a savvy business decision.

McKenna, a right-handed pitcher about to report to an independent league team in Roswell, N.M., figured what better person to ask for some pitching advice than Sale.

I watched as McKenna called out to Sale. Naturally I thought he was asking for an autograph. Sale looked around and couldn’t find a ball. He looked behind him and saw teammate Mitch Moreland walking by a bag of balls.

Sale chatted with McKenna for a bit then beckoned for him to come closer and the two met by the corner of the dugout. They then spent the next five minutes discussing how Sale currently grips his slider, which is different than how he did it earlier in his career.

“I’m just looking for advice,” McKenna told me Sunday. “Chris Sale is the top pitcher in the league – hopefully he’ll get more run support as the season goes. I’m working on a slider and I’ve been throwing it well. He has one of the best in the league.”

McKenna said he is graduating from Notre Dame College, a Division II school in Avon, Ohio, next weekend. The side-arming right-hander said he throws a two-seamer and a changeup and was looking to improve his slider.

Sale, the former ace of the White Sox, is currently getting a crazy 51.7 percent whiff rate with his slider in his first month in Boston. There aren’t many better brains to pick.

McKenna, listed as 6-foot-4, 210 pounds, played at Landmark College before moving on to Notre Dame College where, according to the school’s website, he appeared in one game as a hitter in 2016, walking with the bases loaded and scoring a run.

But in two weeks he’ll begin his professional career in the Pecos League with the Roswell Invaders. The league was established in 2011 and started with six teams. Over the years, the league has grown to its current 12-team setup and has managed to graduate two players, both pitchers, to the big leagues.

“Hopefully I’ll play well there this summer and work my way up,” McKenna said. “Get seen by the right people and eventually play in the MLB.”

McKenna was first introduced to the game at the age of five by his father and grandfather and immediately fell in love. While at Landmark College in Putney, Vt., McKenna excelled at both baseball and basketball — he was the basketball team’s MVP in 2012-13 and the school’s male athlete of the year in 2013-14 — but kept pursuing baseball.

After Landmark, McKenna said a biceps injury kept him from signing with the University of Oregon, which led him to Notre Dame College. His first season there he pitched in the fall, but his biceps injury flared up and he ended up not throwing during the 2015 season. He took some time away from pitching, but remained on the team getting that plate appearance in 2016.

McKenna didn’t let his dream die. After a year-and-a-half away from the mound, McKenna went to a sidearm camp (Sidearm Nation) where scouts told him he was good enough for pro ball.

McKenna said scouts told him they liked that he had a lot of movement and told him he had the potential to hit the high 80s and low 90s with his fastball. They were right. After three months, he said he’s topping out at 87 mph. McKenna made a video of himself and sent it to independent league teams and eventually got an offer from the Roswell and signed two weeks ago. He is on their roster on the team’s website.

Despite the long odds that he may face, McKenna remains optimistic and determined. And Sale only offered words to help reinforce his decision to pursue his dream.

“He was very supportive,” McKenna said. “He asked me what my name was, where I went to school, where I’m playing. I told him about how I’m chasing my dream and he said that’s awesome and told me to never give up. He was very encouraging. A man of his caliber, it was nice of him to give knowledge on the slider and his background.”

Sale didn’t have much time to talk about his tutorial with the aspiring pitcher, but he that he had time to talk to McKenna says a lot about his character.

“I don’t have all the answers, but I do what I can,” he told me.

The picture I tweeted out about the meeting resonated. As of Sunday night, it had been retweeted more than 5,400 times and liked more than 19,000 times. It was also posted in a Facebook room filled with ballplayers who either tried or are currently still attempting to make it to the big leagues and created quite a buzz.

Will Sale’s advice change the trajectory of Patrick McKenna’s career? Well, keep your eye on the Pecos League to see if a side-arming righty is blowing away hitters with a nasty slider.

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